1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for embedding font information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology that generates a portable document format (PDF) file and embeds font information in the file is known. According to this technology, a user is provided with a choice to globally embed selected fonts in the file. This approach is useful when the user is not aware whether a selected output terminal (i.e., printer) supports the particular fonts the user wishes to use. By globally embedding the fonts, regardless of whether the printer itself supports them, the user ensures that the desired fonts appear in the outputted document. However, by globally embedding all fonts, even those that may be supported by the printer, results in an increase in the size of the file, and the time required to process the file for printing.
There is another known system which includes an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer, connected to a printer, in which, before the information processing apparatus generates print data to be transmitted to the printer, the information processing apparatus temporarily stores an electronic document (in so-called “intermediate code”) having a data format different from that of the print data, which is to be finally transmitted to the printer, and, based on this electronic document, print data to be finally transmitted to the printer is re-generated and transmitted.
By embedding the above font information, which includes glyphs, in the electronic document in intermediate code, it is expected that the reproducibility of a printout based on the electronic document can be further improved. The above technology is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-334059 and 2002-330274. However, this approach is seen to increase the processing time for transmitting print data to the printer.
In still yet another known system, font information is automatically identified and automatically embedded in a form. A drawback to this approach is that, depending on the circumstances, fonts that a user may not want embedded will be embedded anyway.
While the above approaches provide a user the ability to embed font information, they result in among other things, an increase in file size, an increase in processing time, and embedding of unnecessary fonts. What is needed is a simple approach that allows a user to determine on a case-by-case basis whether font information is to be embedded.